


Immortality

by zillah975



Category: Alexander (2004)
Genre: F/F, M/M, meta fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-10
Updated: 2005-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-17 18:35:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/179966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zillah975/pseuds/zillah975
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"All our passion dimmed to the longing and brotherly embrace," Hephaistion is saying. "And your shouting, oh my love, did you ever shout so much?" Hephaistion laughs. "You'd have had no army -- they'd never have been able to stand the noise. So it isn't as though my death is the only thing they cocked up."</i></p><p><i>The women lie in a soft tangle of limbs a few feet away, watching the movie and smiling behind their hands, for the most part ignoring the men. As if this creation of the new world has any meaning for them, who are immortal, unchanging. Hydrangias and lemon trees bloom in incongruity, clover and anise and bay.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortality

**Author's Note:**

> For Thamiris.

The king is in a rage. And over something so trivial. At least, Hephaistion thinks it's trivial, and if anyone should know, surely it's Hephaistion.

"They think I'd leave you alone like that?"

Hephaistion laughs. Alexander's temper had ceased to frighten him when they were still boys, grappling in the dusty afternoons.

"On your death bed, they think I'd leave your side?" Alexander paces, almost stumbles over a fall of Cleitus's robe and kicks at it, barely missing Cleitus, who glowers at him.

"They don't understand, you know that," Hephaistion says with a shushing nod to Cleitus. "In the whole thing, who did you kiss?" he asks scornfully. "The woman and the eunuch."

Bagoas, reclining unperturbed in Cleitus's arms, blows a kiss to Hephaistion. He is not displeased to be spared the king's rough affection in the long nights of this place, for while death becomes them all, Alexander is no more gentle a lover now than he ever was. Hephaistion waves a dismissive hand and Cleitus nudges Bagoas's ear with his lips, murmurs something soft, and Bagoas smiles.

"All our passion dimmed to the longing and brotherly embrace," Hephaistion is saying. "And your _shouting_ , oh my love, did you ever shout so much?" Hephaistion laughs. "You'd have had no army -- they'd never have been able to stand the noise. So it isn't as though my death is the only thing they cocked up."

The women lie in a soft tangle of limbs a few feet away, watching the movie and smiling behind their hands, for the most part ignoring the men. As if this creation of the new world has any meaning for them, who are immortal, unchanging. Hydrangias and lemon trees bloom in incongruity, clover and anise and bay.

"But _this!_ " Alexander spits, turning on Hephaistion. "So I'm too gormless to even take your hand while you die, and you, so cowhearted you wouldn't call for me?"

Hephaistion grins, grabs Alexander around the waist and pulls him into a hard kiss. "They fear I'd drag you into death with me if they let you stand too close," he growls, fingers working at the knots of his king's tunic, "and what for their little light-play then?"

Alexander bites back a laugh, refusing to be mollified. "I should have him strung up," he mutters. "His heart cut out, if he thinks I have none."

"And if you were still king of the living, you would no doubt do that," Hephaistion says, trying to cover his smirk with his smile, "but then you would not be here, with me."

The tunic falls to the floor, and Hephaistion goes after it, kisses to Alexander's honey'd skin as he sinks to his knees, and Alexander's voice is a sigh, fingers tangling in Hephaistion's hair.

"My life after you died was all a search for you," he says.

Hephaistion smiles, licks Alexander's navel and makes his lover laugh. "You say the sweetest things, my king," he purrs, then bites. Alexander makes a sound which from someone else might be called a squeak. Skillful fingers change it to a groan, and Hephaistion almost laughs, and his mouth is no less hot for being two thousand years dead.

"Hephaistion," Alexander murmurs, and he says the name only to say it, only to hear it on his own lips. It's like swallowing his lover down, it rolls in his mouth like his lover's musk, shapes his tongue like his lover's cock does, and Alexander can taste him in his name, wants him, always, always wants him, his name only a promise of more.

"Oh, I missed you," he whispers, almost soundless in the still, fragrant air. "I missed you."

Hephaistion's hands on Alexander's hips, seeking the hollows, the soft flesh over muscle, and he pulls Alexander to him and tumbles him to the ground, laughing. The women watch with bright eyes, their legs and arms entwined. When Roxane turns away, Barsine and Thalestris follow, cover her with kisses.

"They are only men," they murmur, velvet voices and cardamom lips.

"You know, I never even liked him very much," she whispers, eyes fluttering closed, her hips lifting. Thighs tremble under clever touches.

Behind them Cleitus draws Bagoas down beside him, and Bagoas smiles. "He's got nothing on you, you know," he murmurs.

Alexander hears it and glares, and Hephaistion pops him gently on the cheek. "You always were looking for what you didn't have," he says with a grin. "Press your advantage, king."

Alexander laughs, and does, and presses, pushes, the way he always pushes, pushing Hephaistion down to the cushions, pushing their bodies together, nations together, the world together, pushing forward always, taking, devouring, changing the world to suit him, changing everything but this, and Hephaistion rises beneath him like the sea.


End file.
